MIDLAND - Two months ago, Allie Stein had never played a real tennis match.

A senior trying out for the Pioneer High School team, she started the year as the junior varsity alternate. She ended it as a state champion.

Combined with sophomore Claire Welsh, whose previous partner got sick and then quit,
the duo won five matches in two days at the Midland Tennis Center, knocking off the Nos. 3, 6 and 2 seeds before beating top-seeded Courtney Dubay and Saarika Ketkur in the No. 3 doubles flight final, 7-5, 6-4.

They also ended up being the difference in Pioneer’s fifth MHSAA Division I girls’ tennis title on Saturday afternoon.

Pioneer had two state champions and 27 total points - five more than reigning champion Midland Dow. The No. 1 doubles team of Paige Munroe and Lauren Wilcox also won a state title.

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The five points, coincidentally, were how much Stein and Welsh earned.

“I was fighting for a varsity spot just because that’s who I am, just want to be my best,” Stein said. “Never in a million years did I picture this at all.”

Stein ended up in tennis because she felt burnt out by soccer, didn’t like lacrosse and had no interest in softball. Yet she wanted to play a sport and since she figured she’s pick up tennis at some point decided to try out.

Three weeks ago, Pioneer coach Tom Pullen called Stein up to varsity and paired her with Welsh. He also started giving Stein lessons - five in all - to help accelerate her learning curve.

Welsh’s personality also meshed with Stein. Both communicate well on the court, talking on almost every shot about where the other is. Part is out of necessity due to the relatively new partnership. Part is due to the way the two have bonded together.

Before playing with Welsh, Stein said the two had never even spoken.

“We’re both really happy, a happy kind of team and optimistic,” Welsh said. “We clicked real fast.

“It was like, I want to play with Allie. And, she’s my only option.”

The option worked.

Stein ended up reminding Pullen of when he started playing tennis. She’ll run to get anything - skills learned from her role on Pioneer’s field hockey team - and ended up with the nickname ‘little ninja’ because, as Welsh said, “she can get through anything.”

Munroe, a senior, won her third straight state title, this time with Wilcox in the No. 1 doubles flight over Midland Dow’s Allie Vickery and Meghan Woody, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.

Munroe didn’t have much time to celebrate. She immediately ran for the showers and then for the car to make a flight to Las Vegas.

There, she will collect a national Saul-Bell jewelry design award for an emerging artist.

“Today is a big day,” Munroe said as she briskly walked to the locker room. “This whole week has been a big week. I graduated on Thursday, came here, won this and now I’m going to Las Vegas to receive an award so it’s been really crazy.

“A huge week for me.”

A court over from Stein and Welsh’s championship, Saline’s No. 2 doubles team of Emma Easom and Heather Vogt won their flight, beating Pioneer’s Alexa Arvidson and Julia Rampton in the final, 6-4, 6-4. Saline ended up finishing third in the state with 20 points.

“It was a tough match, it was hard,” Easom said. “We fought through the whole entire thing.”

Multiple times, Easom and Vogt rallied from 0-40 in a game to come back and win.

It also signified Easom’s last match. As a senior, she isn’t planning on playing in college.

“I wanted to go out there and give it all I had,” Easom said. “Whether I won or lost, I wanted to go out there and have a good time playing tennis.”

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein or Facebook.